You can always go for Everclear; it only smells like ethanol. 
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- Edit 1Before modification by Joel at 23/10/2011 11:07:48 PM
I have been known to put away my share of screwdrivers, too, but learned the hard way that it is worth it to pay a little more for good vodka rather than cheap rot gut. The same is very much true of whisky, and liquor in general and, as Tim says, if they were giving it away it was probably one step up (or down) from trash can punch, so of course it was awful. A lot of people, particularly in college, swear by Jack Daniels Black Label, but, IMHO, it is little more than turpentine with strong name recognition; I find Jim Beam much smoother, but even that is still pretty cheap whisky. Save up for some 20 or 40 year old scotch and you might get a whole other perspective on whisky. You might also look for a blended whisky; mixing an older whisky with a younger tends to make the latter much smoother as well, without having to pay the price for a bottle older than you are.
We weren't just hitting the bottle, you know. There were appetizers, main course and dessert. The whisky was the last drink we had. And it was hideous. I don't mean it was too strong, I can drink cut brandy even if I don't necessarily relish the experience. But the whisky..The smell alone. And the aftertaste.. I guess I just have an aversion to it.
It may, indeed, simply be that it is not your taste, but rational people do not just give away the best whisky except to close friends, if only because giving dozens of people stuff that costs $100 or more per bottle is not exactly cost effective. Obviously, there is a happy medium between paint remover and liquor only available with financing, but, though I do not know your friends, my experience has been that students tend to strike much closer to the latter than the former, with consequent unpleasantness. Most people choose a whisky in large part BECAUSE OF its taste, so it would probably be a mistake to dismiss all of them because of a bad experience with what you get for free at a college party.
Anyway, hope you feel better now--and feel OK tomorrow....
One of my eight roommates brought friends over from a party, they woke me up at 5 am on Saturday. Didn't get a hangover but my sleep schedule is messed up and I have exams to read to.
Yea.
Best of luck with your exams; at least you will have something to celebrate/mourn with a whisky worth drinking. I would make a recommendation, but it would probably be a scotch, and no one appalled by the taste of whisky generally will appreciate scotch. Tragic, that. 